Waller, asked him, when he would again write such verses upon her;
"When you are as young, Madam," said he, "and as handsome as you
were then."

In this part of his life it was that he was known to Clarendon,
among the rest of the men who were eminent in that age for genius
and literature; but known so little to his advantage, that they who
read his character will not much condemn Sacharissa, that she did
not descend from her rank to his embraces, nor think every
excellence comprised in wit.

The lady was, indeed, inexorable; but his uncommon comprised in wit,
qualifications, though they had no power upon her, recommended him
to the scholars and statesmen; and undoubtedly many beauties of that
time, however they might receive his love, were proud of his
praises. Who they were, whom he dignifies with poetical names,
cannot now be known. Amoret, according to Mr. Fenton, was the Lady
Sophia Murray. Perhaps by traditions preserved in families more may
be discovered.

From the verses written at Penshurst, it has been collected that he
diverted his disappointment by a voyage; and his biographers, from
his poem on the Whales, think it not improbable that he visited the
Bermudas; but it seems much more likely that he should amuse himself
with forming an imaginary scene, than that so important an incident,
as a visit to America, should have been left floating in conjectural
probability.

From his twenty-eighth to his thirty-fifth year, he wrote his pieces
on the Reduction of Sallee; on the Reparation of St. Paul's; to the